Ways I Am Available To Help

tl;dr - email me at first-name at last-name dot org

I have been fortunate in my life to have gotten assistance from some remarkably talented folks. My writing is one way I try to pay it forward, but I am available to help in other ways for those with whom I do not have a preexisting relationship.

This is a list of ways I think I might be able to help; if you see something here that would be useful to you, reach out. If you ask for something not on this list, the worst thing that will happen is that I will not respond or say “no”. I certainly will not be a jerk.

Email is by far the best way to reach me. Twitter, LinkedIn, and other mediums are lossy.

Anyone

  1. Answer concise questions via email about topics I know about. I try to answer every concise question I get over email. If you write a two to four-paragraph email with a clear question, I will try to answer it in a timely fashion. Topics that I can answer quickly are generally anything I have written about it in a blog post. A caveat is that if the question obliges me to perform considerable research to answer it, it is unlikely I will answer.

  2. Double opt-in introductions where I think the other party will want the introduction. I’m glad to provide introductions to folks I know, after checking with them it’s ok, to the extent that I believe it’s an introduction they want and there’s a credible reason why you haven’t reached out to them directly. Conversely, I want to protect folks’ time and won’t begin the double opt-in process if I don’t have moderate confidence they would want the introduction.

BIPOC and Women

Additionally, because BIPOC and women are traditionally underrepresented in tech I will do more.

  1. Everything above, I will especially do for you. If you’re not sure if something is appropriate – just go ahead and send it! In the worst case I will simply not respond; more likely, it is totally fine and I will help to the extent that I can.

  2. Give you feedback on a resume and or LinkedIn profile. I generally cannot do this unless you are applying for mid-career roles or higher (I don’t have a lot to offer beyond what you can find with Google if you are earlier in your career). If this is something you want, go ahead and send me the resume and/or LinkedIn profile link directly, you don’t need to ask for permission first.

  3. Join your advisory board. I have some availability to sit on a board or three and want to focus on companies led by underrepresented founders or CEOs. If that describes your company, and you think I would have something positive to contribute as an advisor or board member, I’m interested.

  4. Offer management coaching. Sometimes being a manager can be brutal and you need to talk to someone. Sometimes you need another perspective for a trickly problem. I have a limited amount of bandwidth to help.

A special thanks to Will Larson and Jacob Kaplan-Moss who put up similar pages and helped inspire me to write this one.